HOSTILE BID: The price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase enough stock to obtain controlling interest in company during a hostile takeover. A hostile bid price is inevitably greater than the current market price of the stock. The higher price is designed to induce reluctant stockholders to sell their stock.

AFL: The abbreviation for the American Federation of Labor, which started as a collection of craft unions in 1886, this is now one half of the umbrella organization for labor unions in the United States (the AFL part of AFL-CIO). As a collection of craft unions, the AFL primarily represented skilled workers in particular occupations. However, it also contained unions representing unskilled industrial workers, which led to a rift among AFL members in 1938 and spawned the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). This rift was closed in 1955, when both joined together to form the AFL-CIO, which is the primary advocate for workers and labor unions in the United States.

The percentage change in the price level from one period to the next. The inflation rate is most commonly presented as an annual average, the percentage change in the average price level from one year to the next. The two most common price indexes used to measure the price level and the inflation rate are the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the GDP price deflator. The inflation rate is one of several key indicators of business-cycle instability and the overall health of the macroeconomy, with primary focus on tracking the goal of price stability.

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